Vaelastrasz
=General Information= *Level: Boss * Full Name: Vaelestrasz The Red (Friend to the Alliance/Horde and Challenger to Nefarius) Vaelestrasz The Corrupt(Defeated, Enslaved to Victor Nefarius, Lord of Blackrock, and Corrupted by Victor as punishment) Dialouge: (as he is Corrupting Vaelastarasz) Lord Victor Nefarious: "Ah, the Heroes, you are persistent aren't you? Your Ally attempted to match his power against mine....and paid the price. Now he shall serve me. By slaughtering you." "Get up little Red Wyrmm, and destroy them!" (as the corruption slowly takes over) Vaelastrasz The Red: "Too late...friends. Nefarius's corruption has taken hold. I cannot...control myself. I beg you Mortals, flee! Flee before I lose all control. The Black Fire rages within my heart. I must release it! FLAME! DEATH! DESTRUCTION! COWER BEFORE THE WRATH OF LORD....NO! I MUST FIGHT THIS!" *Location: Blackwing Lair in Blackrock Mountain *Type: Dragonkin =Background= Vaelastrasz is a Red Dragon who is also known as Vaelan in human form. Vaelastrasz has sworn to hunt Nefarian until the end of his days. He hunted down and faced Nefarian to the Blackwing Lair. Vaelastrasz fought him, but was wounded severely and became corrupted by Nefarian's dark blood. This is the moment when the Raid enters the room. You can eyewitness Nefarian, in his human form, corrupting Vaelastrasz with his magic. When he notices the players he gives the now corrupted Vaelastrasz the order to kill the players and vanishes from the scene. Encountering Vaelastrasz Players may encounter Vaelastrasz 3 different times in WoW. # He is hiding in LBRS near the beginning of the instance (first in Orc then Human form). He gives players a quest to create the UBRS key. (If you're having difficulty finding him, try having your gamma way up, and look up - there's a hidden ramp you need to go up.) # He helps a group of players to fight Rend Blackhand in Blackrock Spire. Vaelastrasz projects an illusion of himself to help the heroes, angering Nefarian. This effect must be activated via the UBRS ring, and he will both attack Rend and heal your raid if you time it right. # Later he tries to kill Nefarian in Blackwing Lair, but he fails and becomes corrupted, forcing the heroes to fight him as he is overcome with darkness. =Attacks and Abilities= Fire Nova : Inflicts 555-645 Fire damage to nearby enemies. Fire resistance is a must in order for healers to keep the raid alive. Casters should have a little over 150, Melee DPS over 200, and all Main Tanks the full 315 fire Resistance). This aoe is also a reason why healers should use 1.5 sec heals, and instacast heals only. Flame Breath : Inflicts 3063 to 3937 Fire damage to enemies in a cone in front of the caster. Must be directed away from the raid by the MT. Burning Adrenaline : Damage done increased by 100%. Attack speed increased by 100%. Spells become instant cast. Reduces max health by 5% every second. Deals 4376 to 5624 damage to surrounding allies on death. Players afflicted must move away. When the MT if afflicted, he/she must be allowed to drop dead (to Vael's attacks) before the debuff finishes its explosion countdown. *(Please note: Rogues will not get the Burning Adrenaline, nor a Warrior will ever get it, if he doesn't get Aggro. It will only be cast on a mana user or the current aggro holder.) Essence of the Red : This buff is cast on the raid at the beginning of the encounter and lasts for 3 minutes. Restores 500 Mana per second to mana users. Restores 50 Energy per second to Rogues and Cat Form Druids. Generates 20 Rage per second for Warriors and Bear Form Druids. Cleave : Cleave attack that can be chained to nearby allies. Offtanks should be generating threat far enough from the MT to avoid chaining the cleave, but close enough to slide into place when BA hits the MT. =Strategies= thumb|Vaelastrasz can wipe your raid group in mere seconds Vaelestrasz is most easily killed when the raid has a lot of rogues and healers. The encounter tests aggro control and dps, which both generally counter-act one another. Mana, energy and rage conservation are non-issues due to the Essence of the Red buff that gets handed out at the beginning of the encounter. This buff gives casters 500 mana per second, rogues 50 energy per second, and warriors 20 rage per second. For the first attempt, Vael will be lying on the floor, flagged as friendly. The encounter will begin when the puller (the first main tank) talks to Vael and begins the event. Should the raid wipe, Vael will be positioned in the middle of the room and the raid must stick to the walls when getting positioned. In this case, the main tank should approach Vaelastrasz head-on to begin the encounter safely. Caster DPS (warlocks, mages, and their healers) should be positioned on one side of Vaelastrasz, against the wall, clumped together. Meanwhile, hunters and the tanking line up, should be positioned opposite the casters. Rogues will be meleeing Vael in the area between front and hind legs, avoiding the tail swipe knockback and his front cleave attack. Offtanks should be hacking away closer to Vael's front, around his shoulders, ready to move to the main tank's spot. Burning Adrenaline and MT Transitions Every 15 seconds, Vaelastrasz inflicts a member of the raid with Burning Adrenaline. This debuff effectively turns its target into ticking AoE time bomb, who must move away from their group to avoid a wipe. Every third Burning Adrenaline will be targetted toward whoever is at the top of Vael's hate list (the main tank). All other BA's will be targetted toward random mana users in the raid. Rogues and Druids in feral cat form should not be affected by BA unless they gain aggro, in which case it is generally a guaranteed wipe. When the main tank is afflicted with BA, the next tank on his hate list must move into his position and take over as the main tank with healing shifting over to the new tank after about 10 seconds, giving the BA-afflicted MT time to deal out some high-damage moves before dropping dead. If the next tank does not pick up aggro after the main tank dies, Vael will likely turn toward the side groups and wipe them out with his flame breath. When mana users are afflicted, they must move away from the raid. A good spot for casters is in the very back of the room, behind Vael's tail where they can unload a series of instant cast nukes before they die, helping to mitigate the loss of DPS. During tank transitions, it is important for rogues to use their vanish and hunters use their feign death. This is to ensure that they aren't past the tanking lineup in threat. Mage/Warlock/Priest DPS is generally not enough outthreat the tanks and DPS warriors who gain too much threat can more readily move in to main tank as can feral druids in bear form. When BA hits the main tanks, the next tank in line should be in the tanking spot, spamming threat-generating moves to ensure that Vael is on him when the MT drops dead. Throughout the fight, mages must be chain-casting Arcane Missiles while rogues continously backstab and feint, while all other classes keep as many DoT's as possible on Vael (hunters' Serpent Sting, Warlock Corruption, Priest Shadow Word:Pain). Warlocks should have a Curse of Shadows and the Elements on Vael at all times to bolster the DPS from Mages, Warlocks, and Priests in the raid. Priests must make sure to renew their Shadow Word: Pain between heals. Vaelastrasz is a very intense encounter that must be completed within a 3 minute window (i.e. while Essence of the Red is active). Once Vael's 3 minute buff wears off, healers will no longer be able to keep up with the damage being constantly dished out to the raid. The main challenges in mastering Vael is having smooth tank transitions, enough well-geared warriors to make up the tanking lineup (4 or 5 is good), and careful aggro management from the rogues, sufficient fire resist on melee and casters, as well sufficient healing. Mages and Warlocks aren't too challenged in this fight since their DPS isn't as drastically altered by essence of the red. Likewise, priests are under no pressure to conserve mana. Rogues do by far the most damage in this fight, especially if they are dagger-specced. They can backstab at the limit, but they must not forget to use their "Feint" as well at cooldown limit. Have your Rogues use "Vanish" on the first transition or when the first MT gets BA. This will reduce the rogue's aggro back to zero and the second Warrior should have no problem. One technique that can prove useful is having a suitably geared bear spec'd druid as the first tank. As long as they are spec'd and geared appropriately, they will have no agro problems, and this keeps one more warrior alive to execute after the 20% mark. Fire Resist Info Having high fire resist for everyone in the raid is critical in this fight, trumping all other stats. Because the Essence of the Red buff which provides essentially unlimited mana, spirit and mana regeneration gear is completely useless, and intellect gear is only useful for its increased crit bonus. HINT: Take your raid (10 players at time) to UBRS and Mind Control one or more Scarshield Spellbinder (you can find them just at the entrance under the bridge). These mobs can provide all players with a +83 Fire resistance buff. This buff stacks will all other buffs that provide fire resistance. This takes a lot of time, so it is preferable to do it once your strategy is very well understood by your raid. According to Caydiem, this is not an exploit and continues to be available. You may find it also handy to mass produce some Magic Resistance Potions. They are cheap to make and last exactly 3 minutes. For newer raids that aren't as well geared up, this buff can enable tanks and damage classes to replace some inferior resist equipment with better endurance and damage throughput, turning a 5% wipe at 3 minutes 35 seconds into a kill at 2 minutes, 40 seconds. Keep in mind, however, that magic resistance potions *DO NOT* stack with Fire Resist auras or totems. Another option for extra fire resist is Juju Ember which adds +15 fire resist for 10 minutes. =Quotes= Forgive me (player), your death only adds to my failure. =Loot= Normal Tier 2 Waist Class Trinket * * * * * (Shaman) * (Priest) * (Rogue) * (Hunter) * (Paladin) * (Warlock) * (Mage) * (Druid) * (Warrior) * (Mage) * (Druid) =Quests= * Starts the quest to kill Nefarian within 5 hours and retrieve the Red Scepter Shard for Anachronos =External Links= *Thottbot *Allakhazam *German Tactic link Category:Dragons Category:Bosses Category:Quest Givers Category:Instance Characters Category:Instance:Blackwing Lair